Hello, Summer!

The kid's last day of school is TOMORROW! Wahoo!!! We're so ready to quit waking up early to get to the bus stop by 6:40. 

They don't know it, but we are going to pick them up tomorrow, complete with camper and kayaks, and surprise them with a camping trip! 

It's been hard to keep this a secret. I've been packing for the past couple days and they're all like, what are you doing? I just say I'm packing early for our camping trip at the end of the month, hahahaha, and they totally buy it. I mean, I am a planner and doing things early is not out of the norm for me....so I think I'm safe in my preparations. We even had a visit from friends who will be house sitting, so we could show them how to take care of the animals, yard, and garden. Even then I was just like, "Oh hunny, we're doing it now because they couldn't any other day." hahaha No one suspects anything yet. Yay.  

Also part of my camping preparations, in my never ending quest to ditch store bought and make more homemade, I've tried my hand at homemade cheese crackers, graham crackers, and marshmallows! I'm pleased to say that all three recipes are a huge success! I'll have to post the recipes after camping.  

 

 

Yummy! Sooo excited for homemade s'mores! 

Now, the only glitch with this camping trip is the weather. It's been sunny, but on the cooler and breezy side recently. It's going to get nice here starting this weekend, but up at Timothy Lake, we're looking at only reaching 60-65* with the possibility of rain. But, you know, we have the camper, warm clothes, and tarps. It might not be nice enough to actually go swimming, but we'll have fun either way.  I mean, you can't go wrong with a camp fire, UNO, and delicious camp food. 

Bring on summer! I can't wait to see the look on the kids' faces when we roll up to school with the camper, lol. 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Daisy's First Calamity

Daisy has experienced her first calamity. Nothing major, just a cut on her leg from who knows what. 

It really would have been no big deal if she would have quit licking it so excessively. I know that's how dogs care and heal themselves, but Daisy went overboard and took a pretty mild cut and blew it up into to this red, angry thing with no hair around it. *sigh* 

So off to the vet we went. A cone and bandaging it up was called for. That was not a fun appointment, as my large, but still quite puppyish dog, was all freaked out and did not care to be in a room full of people she didn't know. guess we better start socializing her more. 

Just a few hours after our amazingly fun vet appointment, Anthony called from school complaining of a headache and not feeling well. Being a headache sufferer myself, I don't play around with headaches and minimize the affects of one on someone's well being. So I swooped in and picked him up from school and sent him off to bed. 

A boy and his dog. Both feeling yucky on the same day. 

You know how long the bandage lasted? 12 hours. The cone was a joke. Clearly not big enough for Daisy and made no difference in her ability to get at her leg. So she chewed the bandage off. I re-bandaged it, and she chewed that off too. So I just took the stupid cone off because it was only good for being annoying. I wasn't about to bring her to the vet again and relive that experience, just to have her rip the bandage off as soon as we got home, so I hit up Petco for those special bandages that taste yucky and deter licking. Nope. I'm pretty sure the only thing that would stop this dog from licking her leg was to pour hot sauce on it....and for obvious reasons, that's a no go.  But maybe.....? LOL

So in the end, we gave it a go, and it just didn't work. Leave it to Daisy to not follow the vet's instructions. On the bright side though, it's looking better despite everything. And she is on antibiotics to fight against any type of infection. I think we're good to go. 

And if we're not, I can live with a 3 legged dog. 

With love,
Mama Hauck

The First Sweet Pickin's

We have some harvesting going on!

The main crowns of the broccoli are ready to be cut! There was a learning curve to figuring out when it was time.....still growing....still growing...ok, looking good....looking good...can I now?....wait another day....wait...wait....ok NOW!.....before the crown starts to spread and go to seed!  I'm still getting the hang of it. 

It'll be fun to watch the little side shoots continue to grow. 

Our broccoli from the garden is sooooo much better than what you find in the store! The kids were actually eating it raw, straight after being cut. That's how good it is. Crazy! 

We ate a couple heads over the course of the week, but I wanted to be sure we could prolong the yummy broccoli eating experience. So my friend taught me how to blanch the broccoli just long enough for freezing and storing. I'm totally homesteading over here. 

The strawberries are also starting to be ripe for the picking! Super exciting! The kids love having a few in the morning with breakfast, or a few popped in their lunch sacks. Yum! Keep 'em coming! 

Yay for our first sweet pickin's! 

With love,
Mama Hauck